Third World Liberation Front for the Future: Revisiting Student Activism in the ‘60s Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO, October 10, 2024 – The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) and the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) are excited to announce an upcoming panel discussion titled, Third World Liberation Front tor the Future, organized by 2023 artist-in-residence, writer, and filmmaker Celeste Chan, that will explore the history of student movements with a focus on those that came out of San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the 1960s. 

In 2023, Chan was one of four artists-in-residence selected to participate in the San Francisco Arts Commission's Artist-in-Residence program at the San Francisco Public Library.  

"Through the unique opportunity provided by the Artist-in-Residence Program, the Arts Commission is able to partner City departments such as the Public Library with artists like Celeste Chan to find new and creative ways to engage with City government and explore the resources they hold to help us connect past to present and creates an opportunity to better understand and shape our future,” said Ralph Remington, Director of Cultural Affairs.  

Launched in 2015, the Artist-in-Residence program aims to foster partnerships with City departments, enabling artists to contribute to civic dialogue.  

During her ten-week residency at SFPL, Chan researched student activism in the ‘60s Bay Area and specifically the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), reviewing a mixture of primary and secondary sources, ranging from online photos and videos to in-person archival flyers, posters, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and individual writings.  

Chan notes, “As a student movement, they [TWLF] built a coalition between communities of color, ran the nation’s longest student strike (five months) and created the discipline of Ethnic Studies. We can use TWLF’s lessons for the future, highlighting greater solidarity among activists of color today.” 

“The San Francisco Public Library is proud to serve as a resource for exploring important movements, like the TWLF strikes, which have had a lasting impact on educational policies shaped to empower students and share the often-undertold histories of communities of color,” said Michael Lambert, City Librarian.  

During the course of her research, Chan developed questions that led her to scholars and student strikers from the TWLF strikes: 

“How did the student strikers organize?” and  
“What strategies did they use, and how did they create Third World solidarity?” 

On a phone call with student striker Dr. James Garrett, Chan learned that the organizers worked for ten years leading up to the strike. “I’d been a Freedom Rider since I was 16,” shared Dr. Garrett. He had trained with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and co-founded SFSU’s Black Student Union with the late Jerry Vernado. 

Chan also connected with Professor Laureen Chew, who was raised in San Francisco’s Chinatown and participated in the strike, later becoming a professor of Asian American studies at SFSU. Chan, a SFSU alumna, also spoke with her former professor Jason Ferreira who has extensively researched the Third World Liberation Front movement, unity, and radicalism among communities of color in his dissertation, All Power to the People: A Comparative History of Third World Radicalism in San Francisco, 1968-1974. 

Third World Liberation Front for the Future: Revisiting Student Activism in the ‘60s Bay Area shines a light on TWLF’s tactics, conversations, and conflicts and also what their legacy looks like today and for the future. Panelists include original student strikers and subject matter experts Dr. James Garrett and others. Chan will begin the program with archival images and media clips from the student strike archives found during her time in residence.  

EVENT DETAILS 
Third World Liberation Front for the Future: Revisiting Student Activism in the ‘60s Bay Area Panel Discussion 
Thursday, October 24, 2024, 6:00 p.m. (Doors at 5:30 p.m.) 
San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 
Free and open to the public 

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About the Artist
Celeste Chan is a writer, filmmaker, and teaching artist, schooled by Do-It-Yourself culture and immigrant parents from Malaysia and the Bronx, NY. She creates, collaborates, and curates to amplify voices within marginalized communities. For ten years, she co-directed Queer Rebels, a queer and trans people of color arts project. Chan has received residencies and fellowships from Hedgebrook, Hugo House, Lambda Literary, Mesa Refuge, Ragdale, SAFEHouse, Soaring Gardens, and VONA. Her writing can be found in several journals, including Ada, Alta, AWAY, Citron Review, cream city review’s genrequeer folio, Feminist Wire, Hyphen, Mixed Race/Queer and Feminist, The Seventh Wave, and The Rumpus. Chan is currently researching and writing two books: one about queer lineages, and the other about how her father survived the WWII Japanese occupation of Malaya. www.celestechan.com  

About the San Francisco Arts Commission  
The San Francisco Arts Commission is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy. Our programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Investments, Public Art, SFAC Galleries, and Art Vendor Licensing. Learn more at sfartscommission.org.

About the San Francisco Public Library
The San Francisco Public Library connects our diverse communities to learning, opportunities and each other. The library system is made up of 27 neighborhood branches, the San Francisco Main Library at Civic Center and four bookmobiles.